For years I had heard of powder riding in Japan but always decided against it. It was a costly adventure and I could use the budget for months in the Cascades or weeks in Japan so I past it year after year until 2015. While driving to the Australian Splitboard festival with a friend Leigh he kept telling me to take a trip and visit him as he had just moved there. It wasn’t until early January that a friend Mike Cheney hit me up about going out there and within 24 hours flights were booked and I was off on a 3 week trip in an exciting new culture and hopefully good snowboarding.

We arrived to the typical flashing lights you expect and figured out the train system spending a night in Tokyo where we stopped by an Eddie Bauer shop only to find that there was a print of me on the wall. After sharing a night experiencing local ramen in Shinjuku with my friends Adam and Jaime Flemming we were off to Nagano.

After getting situated in the cabin the next morning we arrived to the local ski hill amidst a storm but not like any storm I had ever seen. There was no wind and it was nuking while you could still barely see the sun above us. I would come to find that the snow comes from sucking moisture off the Sea of Japan contrary to the storms we get in N.A.

And man did it ride good. Turns out over two feet had fallen on top of another foot making unreal conditions where every turn was a face shot and the crowds were relatively light.

From bell to bell we would move around the resort mostly doing semi thick tree skiing but always finding good conditions along the way.

The snow was great and the food was amazing to but the onsen was like the icing on the cake. You would literally ride down from the hill with freezing fingers and toes but 10 minutes later you were soaking in a hot spring day after day. If for one reason Japan is amazing it is for the close proximity of onsens.

Day after day we would ride from bell to bell gaining an international crew as different people would get floor space at Leigh’s. When we could get our good friend Johnny out from WiFi spots he was riding like a champ in the endless amount of trees.

With face shot after face shot it became apparent that we would bring food in our backpacks as well as extra goggles and face masks. Every Gopro video you would take was useless being covered in snow after the first turn but we didn’t mind.

After a few days our friends Tess from New Zealand and Ian from Canada where sleeping at Leigh’s house as well riding during the day, eating sushi in the afternoon and soaking in the onsen at night riding powder conditions day after day.

After a week of riding I started to learn the terrain quickly noticing where the other people would ride and figuring out more open terrain. It wasn’t the biggest of resorts but there was always something to find.

Within a week of being in Japan I had figured out all the rumors were true. The snow, food and onsens were all over the top and price wise it wasn’t all to expensive. At the end of each day we would ride down to the locals parking lot, switch gear in a heated bath room and head to the city for sushi. It was the beginning of a cycle that would go on for years and would pull me back each season from here on out. Basically Japan has become an addiction because of the photos above.